Since its development in the late 1970s, the Moire Fringe method has become a standard technique for the measurement of the behavior of materials and structures. Edited by one of the co-inventors of the technique, the Handbook of Moire Measurement brings together a series of extended case studies from recognized experts in the field. The emphasis is on the application of the method to real situations, and presents a very readable account of the technique from the point of view of the user. As an introduction to the Moire technique and its variants, this book will be of interest to readers at...

Diode lasers use nearly microscopic chips of gallium-arsenide or other exotic semiconductor material to generate coherent light in a very small package. Their compact size, reliability, and low cost means that they find applications in all aspects of modern technology-most importantly they drive modern optical telecommunication systems.
Diode Lasers presents a comprehensive introduction to the principles and operation of diode lasers. It begins with a review of semiconductor physics and laser fundamentals, before describing the most basic homojunction laser. Later chapters describe more...

The laser power handling capacities of optical systems are determined by the physical properties of their component materials. At low intensity levels these factors are not important, but an understanding of damage mechanisms is fundamental to good design of laser products operating at high power. Laser Induced Damage of Optical Materials presents a comprehensive overview of the damage processes that occur at high laser intensity levels and explains how these factors limit the energy handling capabilities of optical systems.
The first two chapters of the book review basic EM theory, and...

In recent years, there has been increasing activity in the research and design of optical systems based on liquid crystal (LC) science. Bringing together contributions from leading figures in industry and academia, Optical Applications of Liquid Crystals covers the range of existing applications as well as those in development. Unique in its thorough coverage of applications, not just the basic chemistry and physics of liquid crystals, the book begins with the existing applications of liquid crystals, from the ubiquitous LCD through to LC projectors and holography. The remaining chapters...

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is the most important example of a stimulated scattering process-light scattering that occurs when the intensity of the light field itself affects the propagating medium. A phenomenon that has been known of for some 35 years in solid state laser research, it has recently become relevant in the optical fiber industry, due to the increasing intensity required in optical fiber cores (and their long interaction lengths). SBS is one of the major limiting factors on the amount of power that can be transmitted via an optical fiber.
This book describes the...

The propagation of light in dispersive media is a subject of fundamental as well as practical importance. This work focuses on the fact that superluminal group velocities are not in conflict with special relativity and to the role of quantum effects in preventing superluminal communication and violations of Einstein causality.

Fluctuations in scattered waves limit the performance of imaging and remote sensing systems that operate on all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. To better understand these fluctuations, Modeling Fluctuations in Scattered Waves provides a practical guide to the phenomenology, mathematics, and simulation of non-Gaussian noise models and discusses how they can be used to characterize the statistics of scattered waves.
Through their discussion of mathematical models, the authors demonstrate the development of new sensing techniques as well as offer intelligent choices that can be...